Method of and apparatus for purifying hydrocarbon oil



March 1929! L. M. JOHNSTON ET AL 1,706,614

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING HYDROCARBON OIL Filed Aug. 22, 1925 a I Q I Vw Jame/ 18 Am ATTORNEYi reamed Mar. 25, 1929.

UNITED STATES v 1,706,614 PATENT OFFICE.

LEMUEL M. JOHNSTON AND JAMES L. FARRELL, OF PACO, WYOHI1\l'G.

METHOD OF AND APPARATUS FOR PURIFYING HYDROGARIBON OIL.

Application filed August 22, 1925. Serial No. 51,746.

Our invention relates to a method of and apparatus for treating hydrocarbon oils and is particularly, though not exclusively,

I adapted for treatment of cracked gasoline.

treating the same. Heretofore it has been Hydrocarbon oils are usually treated to decolorize, deodorize, or otherwise purify the same before sale. It is common practice to pass the hydrocarbon oil through some treating medium such as fullers earth, ben tonite, or similar material, for the purpose of decolorizing, deordorizing, or otherwise usual in effecting such treatment of hydrocarbon oils to place the proper quantity of I after, the tower is again charged with treating medium and the same process again started, these alternate chargings and d1schargings taking place whenever the'treating medium becomes spent. This method,

which may be termed batch operation, is expensive in time, labor and materials, and the hydrocarbon oil is not in all cases treated with the desirable degree of uniformity.

The oil receiving the first treatment from the fresh treating medium will be more effectively treated than the oil passing through the treating medium which is almost spent.

It is the general object of the invention to provide a generally improved and cheap: ened member of and apparatus for treating hydrocarbon oils so as to deodorize, decolorize, purify, or otherwise treatv the oil.

It is another object of our invention to.

provide a method of and apparatus for treating hydrocarbon oils in which the treatment will be substantially continuous as distinguished from treatment in batches.

It isa further object to provide a method of and apparatus for preparing treating medium soas to form a porous or open column through which oil vapors maybe passed for treatment. v Other min0r objects will be ap-' parent as the specification proceeds.

The method in a preferred form may be briefly described in connection with a preferred form of apparatus for carrying out the process. A suitable treating tower or treating chamber is provided, and into this tower, the treating medium is fed, preferably in form of strings or other comparativelyfinely divided 'masses. In order to 'facilitate the introduction of the treating medium into the treating tower in the desired form, it is preferred to mix the treatmg medium, for example, fullers earth, bentonite, or the like, with water so as to form a paste or mud which may then be forced or extruded from nozzles by means of a suitable pump, mud press, or the like. The threads 01' strings are dropped down in the tower and vaporized hydrocarbon oil passes into the tower, preferably near the lower end and upwardly therein to the top,

at which point it passes out to, a suitable condenser or the like. The hot oil vapors serve to at least partially dry the mud strings so as to form relatively hard masses which in falling one on the other willbuild up a column having substantial interstices to permit the proper passage of the hydrocarbon oil vapors. In addition to or in lieu of drying the mud strings by means of the hydrocarbon oil vapors, we may also employ v steam for heating the mud during passage through the nozzles or at some other 1ocation. The method contemplates a substantially continuous passage of hydrocarbon oil vapors through the column of treating medium and the addition of stringlike, or other form of treating medium, to the top of the column and removal of quantities of spent treating medium from the medium, after bein broken up when necessary, is removed tom the bottom of the tower and conducted to a suitable container where it may be treated to remove entrained oil and possibly to partially revivify the same In the drawings which show, .for illustrative purposes only, a preferred form of apparatus for carrying out the process- Fig. 1 is a partially disagrammatic view of. apparatus for carrying out the process and embodying features of inventions;

' bottom of the column. The spent treating Fig. 2 is anenlargedsectional view of a detail. I, p p

' In said drawings, 5 indicates a shell or what may be termeda treating tower. This tower preferably will be lagged or insulated.

' may be connected to a steam pipe 13 for 7. the purpose of heating the material passing 'on the outside as by means; of suitable insulating. material 6. applied to the surface thereof, Within the tower is preferably a bottom or partition which may be in the form of a. shakin grate 7 which may be actuated by suita le means, such as the crank 8 on the outside of the tower. At the upper end of the tower we provide means for introducing treating medium and in the storm shown, we employ a plurality or nozzles 9-9 connected to a manifold 10, which manifold is in turn connected to a suitable device, such as a mud pump, press, or the like, 11, for a purpose to be later described. These nozzles, or some part oi? the nozzle system, are preferably steam-jacketed and, in the form shown, each nozzle 9 is provided with an annular chamber or jacket 12 which through the nozzles, The treating medium, which may be fullers earth, bentoni'te, or the like, depending upon the particular requirements, is preferably introduced into the treating chamber in the form of a paste or mud. l Ve may prepare the paste by mixing the finely powdered or granulated mate- .rialwith water so as to form a putty-like mass thin enough, however, to be readily ex truded through the nozzles 9-49 and into the treating tower 5. It will be observed that by forming. the treating medium into a paste or mud, waste dusts from pulverizing mills may be usedeflectively. The mud is fed to the pump or press 11 in the usual way and the press forces the mud through the manifold 10 and out through the nozz es 9+9, themud issuing therefrom in the form of string-like masses which drop d wn the treating chamber and onto th grate/l, if such grate beprovided. The strings will be longer or shorter depending upon the consistency of the mud, the speed of extrusion, the speed of drying, etc. It will sometimes be desirable to heat the mud before itenters the treating tower and in suchcases, steam is introduced into the jackets 12' was to heat the mud to such an extent that it will be at least partially dried as soon as it emerges into the treating tower 5.

The h drocarbon oil is vaporized in a suitable 'stil 14: and a pipe 15 conducts the vapors intothe tower 5 near the lower end thereof. Obviously, the vapors may be passed through a fractionating tower be-v fore entering the-treatin tower. The yapors pass out of this treating tower near the upper 'end,througha pipe 16 leading to a suitable condenser 17- for condensing the treated vapors. Now, with all except the very low boiling point hydrocarbon oils, the

hot vapors entering the tower through the pipe-15 on coming in contact with the string-like masses from the nozzles 99,

will dry the mud strings so that they become comparatively hard or firm so that the lower strings falling upon the rate will support subsequent strings frilling on top and treating medium inside the tower as diagrammatically"illustrated in the drawings. Theheight of the column in the tower may .be'ascertained as by-means of a suitable crows foot 18 extending through a stulf- 1 fing box in the top of the tower. Obviously, by moving the crows foot until it contacts with the top of the treating column, one is apprised of the approximate height thereof. 7 7

' Now, the vapors passing through the treating column are given the treatment attorded by the specific treating medium employed, and the treated vapors then emerge from the tower and are condensedor otherwise treated. t

a very porous or open-work column of After a time, the material at the lower part of the treating column becomes spent and by our process is removed while the upper part of the column is heing built up' by fresh treating mediumentering through .the nozzles 99. The lwer part of the column may become quite hard and lumpy and iat this happens, the shaking grate 7 may be actuated by the crank 8 to break up the lumps and permit the small particles to fall through the grate and into the lower cone-shaped bottom 19 in the treating tower. Some oil vapors are likely to condensein the tower and drrlp into the spent treat ing medium in the cone-shaped bottom of the tower. This condensate may be refluxed baclr into the still 14 through the connection 20, if desired.

At suitable intervals, a large valve21 in the bottom of the tower 5 may be opened and the spent'treating medium below the substantially the same treatment at all times,

thus distinguishing sharply vfrom a batch operating process in which the vapors passing through the, fresh treating medium receive more efficient treatment than those passing through later when the entire batch is more'or less spent.

The spent treating medium in the receptacle 22 may then be treated to remove the entrained oil, and for thisv purpose, we may lntroduce a suitable'solvent, such as gasoline or other llght oil, through the'pipe 23,

for dissolving out a part of the oil which is then removed through pipe2st and used for whatever purpose it may be fitted. Instead of dissolving out the oil with a's'olvent, we may introduce water, steam, or super heated system'through the pipes 25, 26, 27 for vaporizing the oil, which vapors may pass out of the receptacle 22and into a suitable condenser 28 where the vapors are condensed. lVhen steam is employed and the entrained oil vaporized, the treat-- ing medium is partially revivified and may be used over again, for example in percolating type treating towers. 'lhe spent treating medium may pass from'the' receptacle 22 through the valve 29 and be conducted away by a suitable conveyor, orthe like, 30. r

it will be seen that by means of our improved process and apparatus, we are en-' shied to afiord a substantially continuous treatment of hydrocarbon oils as distinguished from a batch treatmerit. Itwill be observed further-that hydrocarbon oils treated by our process will receive substantially uniform treatment day in and day out so that a uniformly finer product results. Waste products, such as mill dusts, may be used as part or'all of the treating medium since the latter is preferably introduced in the form of mud. Time, labor, and material are saved by our continuous process as distinguished from a batch operating process. llhe spent treating medium after removal from the treating tower may itself be treated to remove entrained oil and to partially revivify the same.

While the invention has been described in somedetail, we do not wish to be limited to the specific method and apparatus herein itlescrihed, since changes may be made within the scope of the invention, as defined in the appended claims.

We claim ilvlethod of treating hydrocarbon oil which includes forming a treating medium into a paste or mud forming the paste into strings and permitting the same toaccumulate to form a porous column of treating medium, vaporizing the hydrocarbon oil and passing the vapors through said column to be treated thereby and out through the top thereof.

2. In a method of treating hydrocarbon oil which includesfoi'ming a treating me-' dium into a paste or mud forming the paste into strlng-llke masses and permitting the same to accumulate to form a porous column of treating material, vaporizing hydrocaran insulated treating tower, a shaking grate bon oil and passing the vapors through said .column ,of treating medium, said vapors serving to at least partially dry said stringlike masses whereby the same are hardened and the column will remain porous so as .to permit the passhge of vapors there'through,

said vapors receiving treatment from the treating medium of said column.

3. The method of treating hydrocarbon oil which includes forming the treating medium into a paste or mud forming the paste or mud into string-like masses, heating the Stlll1 {lll(0 masses to at least partially dry the same, peruuttiug the strings to accumulate to form a porous column of treating "paste, forming the paste into a plurality of string-like masses and permitting the same to accumulate to form a porous column of treating medium, vaporizing the oil and passing the vapors through said column of treating medium and out through the fresh ly added portions of said string-like masses, breaking up the spent treating medium at one end of said column and removing the same while the column is being built up at the opposite end.

\ 5. The methodof treating hydrocarbon oils which includes vaporizing the oil, forming a treating medium into a paste, dividing the paste into relatively small masses and dropping the same through the vaporized oil to at least partially dry the same whereby said small masses may pile up and form a porous column of treating medium and passing the hydrocarbon vapors through said column for treatment.

' 6. In a device of the character described, a treating tower, a plurality of nozzles leading into said tower, means for forcing treating medium in the form of a paste or mud through sald nozzles to form string-like masses, means for vaporizing hydrocarbon oil and conducting the vapors to said treating tower, said string-like masses forming a porous column of treating material in said tower through which said vapors may pass, and means for condensing said vapors after passage through said treating tower.

-7. In a device of the character described, a treating tower for receiving a column of treating medium ,"a nozzle connecting with said tower, means for driving treating medium in the form of a mudor paste through said nozzle, means for heating the mud or paste duringpassage through said nozzle to at least partially dry the same, and means for j conducting hydrocarbon oil vapor to said tower. 1

8. In a device of the character described,

therein, a plurality of nozzles connecting with interior of said tower, means for forcthe masses of paste issuing from said nozzles to accumulate on and above said grate to treating medium.,'means for permitting theremoval of s enttreating medium and entrained oil rom said towerbeneath said grate, and means for receiving said spent treating medium and entrained oil,

[mo em 9; The method of treating hyocarloon oils which includes, forming a treating medium into a pa'ste or mud,"dividing the" paste into relatively small masses, drying the small masses and'forming'a orous column of treating mediumv by adding said small masses at the top thereof, and passing the oil vaponupward through said porous column, for treatmentand to have a dry ing eflect on the newly added masses.

LEMUEL M. JoHNsroN; JAMES L. FARRELL 

